


Future's End

by BobRussellFan



Category: Star Trek: Voyager, The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Episode: s03e08 Future's End, Fix-It, fixfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21752557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobRussellFan/pseuds/BobRussellFan
Summary: In which one of the grimmest dystopias in the history of 20th century fiction runs into a universe where you can just fix everything in the length of a forty-five minute episode - sometimes a two-parter if things are getting a little hairy.Or "What if instead of fighting Ed Begley Jr., the crew of the USS Voyager fought Gilead?"Also Khan is here somewhere, because it's the 1990s of the Trek universe.
Kudos: 10





	1. Crossover

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks. 
> 
> Here's a familiar story - or is it?
> 
> Arguably some non-con stuff here - I didn't personally think it was worth tagging, though.

“You can use logic to justify just about anything, that's its power and its flaw.”  
“Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”

Kathryn Janeway opened her eyes and chased away dreams. Center seat, temporal anomaly, mad captain...what the Hell happened? She looked around her bridge crew, saw the flashing red alert signals, saw no serious injuries - and so pressed on with what was really important. "Status." It wasn't a question, not really, but she directed it to her crew anyway as she rose to her feet. Tuvok spoke first, his tone cool and professional from where he stood at tactical. Sometimes she thought Tuvok wouldn't raise his voice when reporting on imminent Armageddon. 

"Primary systems are coming back online. The weapons array and power grid took heavy damage." For his own part, Tuvok took a moment to add a footnote to the memorandum he was preparing for Starfleet Command upon their return to the Alpha Quadrant. While the self-repair abilities of the Intrepid class had greatly exceeded any of Starfleet's expectations during their time in the Delta Quadrant, it was valuable knowing what causes inflicted precisely what damage, and while it was unlikely that they would have another encounter with a 29th century vessel (assuming they survived this one), the lesson of the Delta Quadrant was that one could never be too careful. 

At Operations, Harry Kim punched through the electrostatic interference on the hull (C-sharp) and reinitialized exterior sensors (E-sharp) and never once thought about how they'd fought a man from five hundred years in the future and survived! (C-sharp) because that was how it was in Starfleet every damn day. " The temporal rift is closed," he offered, relieved. He didn't comment as he powered up the viewscreen (D-sharp) and the first officer declared "Where are we?", knowing the answer was obvious. (E-sharp) Instead he thought about music, because it was far easier than thinking about anything else. But suddenly, as he often did on bridge duty, he lost the beat. 

The planet on the viewscreen was one that was suddenly, heart-breaking familiar to all of them. Or was it? Harry frowned (D-sharp-C-sharp) at the viewscreen and a North America that looked not quite right... 

"Home." Tom kept from shouting (Chakotay was taking care of that anyway), images of his father's face flashing before his eyes for just a moment. Well this wasn't a bad way to come home, and if he left the ship to go back to prison or to Sandrine's, at least he could truthfully say he'd piloted them all the way from the Delta Quadrant to high Earth orbit. He peered at the familiar shape of North America, trying to pick out the North Carolina coast of his youth. 

"Captain, what's that-" He pointed to the West Coast - and Kathryn Janeway felt her blood run cold. 

"Mr. Kim?" The scene was appalling. A great black scar lay across the southern third of the West Coast of North America, extending deep into the ocean and far inland. ,all the more horrific for what should have been there. Los Angeles? Parts of San Francisco. It was hard to tell from orbit but it was _not right_. 

"I'm reading chroniton, thermal, gamma radiation, and the aftereffects of a multi-gigaton conventional explosion." Kim kept it cool and (G) read out the data, trying not to think about the horror that must have happened here. (E) "It looks like evidence of a relativistic impact from a warp-capable vessel. From the amount of radioactive dust in the atmosphere, I'd say it happened about...thirty years ago." Kim looked up. (C) 

"My God," said Janeway, appalled. "Braxton." She thought of the damage, trying to relate it to what she knew about the history of the Federation. Over a century earlier, during Earth's war with the Romulan Star Empire, Romulan vessels had crashed into Coridan at warp-speed, turning a populated world of billions into an apocalyptic nightmare. Even in her own time, Coridan was one of the least developed worlds in the Federation - and even the Romulans wouldn't ram a starship into a populated world. Thirty years earlier had been an era of general peace and prosperity, with what defenses the Federation had along the borders with the Cardassians. _My God_, she thought, appalled, _they'd have had no idea what was happening until it was too late..._. "Mr. Tuvok, hail Starfleet Command." 

"Captain." Tuvok spoke up. "Need I remind you of the Temporal Prime Directive? It is our responsibility to avoid contaminating this timeline with knowledge of other realities - particularly since our mission may well involve correcting this history?" He raised an eyebrow. It was a good question.

"Normally I'd agree," said Chakotay, meeting the Captain's eyes. It was easier than looking at the aftereffects of the below holocaust - he could see how small the cities were as they rotated into nightside, how orbital space around Earth looked nearly barren. _Why hasn't anyone done anything to clean this up?_ he thought, disgusted. "But even if we do try and find a way to correct this history, we need to know exactly when and where Braxton impacted the planet." 

"Agreed. Tuvok, carry out my orders." Though still skeptical, Tuvok tapped away at his station, running through the standard "Greetings" package that a Federation starship would emit in the Terran system - both to contact any number of ground facilities as well as asserting their friendly status to orbital defenses and other starships. 

"No response on standard frequencies." That was bad, and they all knew it. Even if Earth had been depopulated by whatever had happened here thirty years earlier, the Terran system was one of the most densely inhabitated star systems in the Federation. Somebody should be saying something, somewhere. "Curious. I am picking up a multitude of narrow band EM signals." 

Janeway and Chakotay exchanged looks, then Janeway spoke. "Let's hear it." Filtering volume and frequency for human ears, Tuvok played a medley of the most powerful signals, a burst of music, spoken words, and the audio tracks of visual signals. 

_"There's power enough in heaven, To cure a sin-sick soul._  
_"And crown thy good with brotherhood"_  
_"Under his eye!"_  
_"Glasgow celebrating its first birth in six months"_  
_"fighting continued on the Wasatch Front as-"_  
_"Khan Singh pledged-" 

"...wait a second!" said Janeway, raising her hand. "Play that last one." The last one turned out to be a news report from the BBC International about conflict between India and Pakistan - Khan Noonien Singh's forces were battling "Muslim freedom fighters" in what had once been Karachi, but Khan himself had pledged that the 'terrorism' problem would be over by the end of the year. "The Eugenics Wars. My God, it dropped us into the middle of the Eugenics Wars." 

Kim spoke up, keeping time with the universe (C-flat) to avoid the sick feeling of terror in his stomach. "According to astrometric readings, the year _is_ 1996." 

"Captain, they had surveillance satellites during this time," said Paris quickly, "some of them linked to orbital fusion weapons." 

"Maintain a high orbit," said Janeway, thinking quickly. "And modulate the shields to scatter their radar." A fusion weapon detonated against their shields wouldn't do more than shake up the ship, but they'd already taken enough damage in the last few minutes she didn't want to risk any further damage. "The less we alter this history, the better. So it's an alternate 1996, we're in the middle of the Eugenics Wars...but as bad as the Eugenics Wars got, there was never anything like...this," she said, gesturing to the crater Kim had magnified for them. "Tuvok, give me a deep scan. Look for...anomalies, maybe Braxton managed to beam out before the impact, or some part of his vessel sheared off before impact..." 

Tuvok ran another scan. "I am picking up low frequency subspace readings emanating from the Northern Hemisphere." 

Chakotay, a sometimes archeologist, offered, "It's about a century before there should be any subspace technology at ground level." 

"It could be something from Braxton's ship. Localize it." 

Tuvok offered, "North American continent, Atlantic coast. The city of Boston." 

Janeway nodded. "That makes sense - a major port, strong universities, a distance from whatever happened on the West Coast...Mr. Kim, given the population of southern California in the 1960s, what's your estimate for casualties from the explosion you monitored." 

Kim could do it - even if he had to (B-flat) do it on his console rather than in his head the way Tuvok could have. "I estimate...on the order of ten or twenty million from the initial impact, then millions more from the climatic and radiological effects. Honestly, Captain, I'm surprised there's a North American government at all given how much damage the local ecology must have taken."

"People can be resilient," said Janeway, thinking of her own ancestor Shannon O'Donnell, who in this timeline was probably still designing suborbital drop ships for use against Khan's forces in China. "We've got to go down there. If it is something from Braxton's ship, it's the key to all this - and at this moment, his technology is the only way we have of getting back to our century - and fixing whatever happened to our past. Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris, you're with me. Mr. Kim, you have the bridge." 

Kim agreed, a firm, "Yes ma'am!" the only thing he had to say. 

Janeway turned to the helmsman. "As I recall, Tom, you're something of an aficionado on twentieth century America. What are we likely to need to pass for locals - even for a few minutes?" 

-

They'd beamed down inside a building that still stood in 24th century Boston, an ancient structure that had been built centuries even before 1996 - the Old North Church. Janeway shone her light around the crypt and shook her head. "This looks right...but I don't like it." It was a simple matter to unlock the mechanical door with a magnetic tricorder signal - and then to step out into an Old North Church that looked decidedly odd. It was late at night and the building was closed, but the symbols hanging were distinct - a black dove holding a golden olive branch in its mouth, and overhead a golden sun. 

"Mr. Paris, do you recognize this?" asked Janeway. Paris looked abashed, his face half-lit by the handlamps he held. 

"I, uh, have to admit I never really followed 20th century religion...but this doesn't look familiar," he admitted, looking the flag up and down. "I think maybe we-" 

Suddenly the door opened and the away team took shelter, ducking down out of sight behind the pews that lay between them and the church doors. They moved quickly, taking shelter as they heard the door slam shut again. 

"Two lifeforms," said Tuvok almost inaudibly, "a human male and human female..." 

Janeway's grip tightened on her phaser. She didn't want to start stunning the locals as her first move in temporal - possibly dimensional - diplomacy, but they didn't really have a good explanation for what they were doing here... 

She peered up as the figures entered - a handsome man in his thirties just going bald, in a dark suit that reminded her vaguely of her 19th century adventures on the holodeck, and a dark-haired woman in a long red dress and bonnet. _What the Hell_? That outfit did not look right, even given her own limited knowledge of 20th century history. She shot Paris a look, who shrugged. 

"-c'mon, it's perfect," the man was saying as he stroked the woman's hair. "You're a rebel, aren't you? We'll do it right on the altar, that'll get your juices going, right?" He was dragging the woman down the aisle towards the away team - who come to think of it, were standing between them and the altar. 

"...this is adultery, Glen." Only Tuvok could quite make out the human woman's voice - a low, tight whisper that told him much. Having been a law enforcement professional for several decades he understood what was happening, and readied his phaser; but he couldn't get off a clear shot with "Glen" between him and the woman. He asked Janeway a question with his eyes, and she agreed. "They'll k-kill me, and they'll cut things off you..." 

Glen slapped her across the face. "Shut up! Stupid whore," he spat. "My bitch wife gets off on watching, well fuck her too!" The man was intoxicated; this would make things easier. "See if she likes it so much when-" 

"Excuse me." Tuvok appeared behind the man and placed his hand on his shoulder. Glen dropped from the effects of the nerve pinch. "You are safe now," said Tuvok, glad to see that Janeway had circled around from the back. "I am-" The woman opened her mouth to scream - and just as hastily slapped her hand over it to silence herself. She screamed anyway, a muffled noise of terror that went on for several seconds before she stopped for breath and turned to run. 

"It's all right, it's all right," said Janeway, appearing behind her before she could actually bolt. "I'm Kathryn Janeway, and we're here to help you." 

"Did you kill him?" asked the woman. She sounded eager and afraid in equal quanities, her emotions telling Tuvok more about what had happened here - and how long it had been happening.

"He's just unconscious," said Janeway, conscious of the way the woman was looking down at the fallen man. "What's your name?" 

"My name is Ofglen," she said immediately. "But..." Ofglen looked up at her rescuers and said, "You can...you can call me Rain Robinson..."


	2. Popular Science

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rain makes it up to Voyager, and meets a friend.

"Rain, do you have somewhere safe you can go?" asked Janeway, giving the young woman a sympathetic look. She didn't know this society, but she knew the sort of relationship she'd just seen. 

"Hahaha..." Rain pulled at her hair, her bonnet falling down into her hands. Up close, Janeway could see an odd bit of jewelry implanted in her ear, some sort of plastic tag. "Is that a joke?" She looked Janeway up and down, then at the others. "Because I really don't have time for jokes anymore," she whispered, her voice tight. 

"Ms. Robinson?" Tuvok had his tricoder out. "Did you arrive here in an automobile with a driver?" 

"...yes," said Rain, "We drove here non-stop from Cambridge. Glen told him to park the car outside and not say anything if he knew what was good for him." She shook off the question, then looked back at Janeway. "But seriously, we don't have a lot of time here. Where are we going?" 

Standard protocol would have been to leave Rain here, perhaps transporting her to another part of the city - but they were a long way past standard protocol here. And did the Prime Directive really apply to an alternate Earth? Tuvok briefly broke into Janeway's concentration. "He has activated an EM communications device." He pressed a few buttons, and the transmission came through. 

"-Deeds is currently in the process of committing a second-degree sexual sin with his Handmaid at the Old North Church site. Please advise." 

"This is Guardian 47," said a distinctly Boston-accented voice. "Hold your position and we'll be there within twenty minutes. Thank you for remaining Under His Eye." 

"We have to leave right now!" said Rain, grabbing Janeway's arm. Her eyes were wide and her heart pounding. "I don't know if you're resistance or what, but we're all dead or worse if they find us here." 

"...all right," said Janeway, "we're going to take a little trip. Everyone, form in on me!" She tapped her combadge and declared out loud, "Janeway to Voyager - _five_ to beam up directly to Sickbay!" 

\---

Ofglen-no, _Rain Robinson_ had wondered what it would be like to die. The cause didn't matter; a flu that she wasn't being vaccinated against any more, a noose around her neck for subversion, the stones of her fellow Handmaids for worse, all of it within sight of the buildings where she'd been an astronomy graduate student a lifetime ago. She'd imagined everything from the peace of oblivion to hazy visions of the Heaven her secular parents had occasionally discussed - with the odd nightmare, when she was alone in the dark, of her enslaver's Hell. 

As the metal room took slow, shimmering space around her, she had to admit she'd never really imagined death would be anything like this. She was in one place in one moment and another place the next, and the people who'd rescued her looked like they did this every day. _Maybe I am alive, just crazy!_ 

"Computer!" called Janeway, clearly the leader of this little resistance cell. "Activate the EMH!" And then a man in blue pajamas appeared out of thin air on the other side of the room. 

He said something but Rain didn't hear him over her own

"JESUS GOD!" She screamed in terror, and Janeway let her run - only to realize there were no visible doors in this place. "Where the Hell are we?" Rain demanded. 

"You're aboard our ship. We used...a new kind of technology to bring you here. But the important thing is, you're safe, and that man can't hurt you anymore." Janeway had an air of command about her that Rain hadn't seen around anyone but an Aunt for a long time - but no Aunt would be caught dead in pants and a jacket. Well that's not true, a small part of her that had never quite gone silent even in the worst times said, probably some of them had been! "Who's this?" 

"The Emergency Medical-" Janeway shot a look at the man and abruptly pulled him aside, dragging him into an open-glassed office where an odd-looking blonde with a pixie-cut was working with lab equipment. The old Rain would have followed her to see what Blondie was working on (and didn't her heart break at the sight of a woman scientist at work!), but Rain sat down on one of the nearby beds and looked at the men who'd saved her, who were now standing around with awkward expressions on their faces. 

"That was-that was a nice move you pulled on Commander...on _Glen_," she made herself say to the black guy, whose name she hadn't quite caught. "Can you...can you teach me that?" she said, not quite believing her own voice. 

"The art requires significant physical and mental training," said Tuvok, his voice level and as reassuring as he could make it. "However, if given the opportunity, I would be willing to demonstrate it for you." 

Tuvok was interrupted by Janeway's return with Emergency Medical Man and Blondie - Blondie who had had some impressive body modifications done to her ears at some point. Rain had almost mistaken them at first for the aftereffects of amputation, but she'd seen what severed ears looked like and those things hardly looked like that. She was also wearing an outfit that looked a little bit like pajamas - but they were a lot more like normal clothes.

"Hello," said EMM, "I'm...the ship's doctor, and this is my nurse, Kes." 

"Hello," said Kes, her voice a low, throaty contralto that didn't quite fit her petite body. "Do you mind if I examine you?" Rain's eyes widened in fear as she glanced at the other people in the room, and Kes added, "I won't have to touch you or make you remove any of your clothing," she said, "I'm just going to scan you with this device." She held up an odd, whirring tool that looked a little bit like an electric shaver. 

"Ah...go ahead," Rain hazarded, warming to the strange nurse despite the bizarre circumstances. By now the strange hospital had mostly cleared out, leaving it with just her, Kes, the Doctor, and the surprisingly reassuring presence of Tuvok. "Say, you guys aren't from a Buck Rogers convention, are you?" 

"No," said Kes as she studied her instruments, "I'm from a place called Ocampa. Where are you from?" 

"I grew up in New Hampshire," she said softly. "Mom...Mom is a photographer, and Dad ran a little clothing store called Crazy Sophie's." She closed her eyes for a moment, touching the painful memories in the back of her head. "I'm the youngest of five, I...don't know where everyone else is now. So you," she said levely, "what's up with the ears?" 

"Well..." said Kes, hesitating, and Rain realized how young she had to be. She glanced back at Tuvok (worth knowing about) then said, "The truth is, these ears are natural for my species. My home planet is on the other side of the Galaxy." She tilted her head to show the ears to Rain, and they sure as hell looked real to her. 

"You're from...you're from space?" Rain stared at Kes - and suddenly bolted forward, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman and holding her tight. She'd find out later that Kes had been telling Tuvok to stay back, that everything was okay, but for the moment Rain let the racking, heaving sobs take her as a childhood dream came true, and whatever Gilead had taken, or would take, it couldn't take this from her. 

She had imagined what it would be like to tell her story someday. Maybe she'd be old and telling it to the next generation, so they'd remember what things were like before everything had changed. Maybe she'd be young and before a war crimes tribunal, giving the testimony that would send Deeds and Waterford and all the others to the gallows. She'd never imagined anything like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At least one more part is coming, probably two. 
> 
> Note: Kes is better at this than you'd think. Remember what happened to her in the pilot. 
> 
> Comments?


	3. Briefing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exposition Time!

"We caused this." Janeway stared at the recorded images of holocaust on the briefing room screen, paused by Kim when she'd asked. "What happened to this version of Earth - it's _our_ fault."

Tuvok, from his seat nearby, demurred. "I do not believe that is a fair assessment, Captain. Though the impact of Braxton's ship did destabilize many of the governments of this world," _recorded scenes of cities on fire on the West Coast; of failed harvests across the world, of plagues and famine and disease_, "neither the impact nor its subsequent socio-political repercussions could be plausibly attributed to our actions." 

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Paris, his face haunted. The 20th century had been his passion since he'd been a boy; a world torn between sanity and horror, a world stuck in the past and on the edge of the future, the first time humans dreamed of going out into the stars and finding something there. What they saw below was nothing like that. "This regime of...breeding that Rain described, even in the 20th century they understood something about human biology. They have to know they're killing themselves!" _images of Chicago in flames as Gileadean and American troops fought house-to-house, a naval conflict in the Pacific as Khanate submarines torpedoed a Chinese aircraft carrier_ 

"People believe all sorts of things that don't make sense, as long as it benefits them." Janeway had expected Torres to shout, to rage, at the horrific images that Voyager had intercepted from Gilead's communications network - but the look on her face was cold and determined. "This regime gives people an enemy to fight, tells them who's to blame for their problems, and hands out rewards to the faithful. It reminds me of some things the Cardassians tried on Bajor. I just can't believe they did it to _themselves_." _A Gileadan propaganda video offering refuge to those fleeing the Khanate; a European scientist's report that mass sterility levels were increasing rather than decreasing..._

"B'Elenna, that is not fair," said Kes. With Rain asleep, she'd come to the briefing room herself to deliver her report on her patient's condition. "This group that created Gilead, the Sons of Jacob, they are not anything these people created. Rain told me that she and her friends thought they were a joke until they took over." Rain had told her other things - about when the tanks had rolled onto Harvard square, and about how a blood test she'd taken years earlier had spared her from the same confinement as her classmates. How she'd thought she was lucky, at first. _Shaun Geoffrey Christopher standing at a podium in Honolulu, announcing a successful airstrike against Gileadan forces in Washington._ 

"Well maybe they should have paid better attention!" said Torres, shouting now. "Look at them!" Voyager showed images of enslaved women and other dissidents working in the irradiated fields of the American West. "If they think they can clean up after a relativistic starship impact with picks and shovels, they're _insane._ All they're doing is guaranteeing they die quickly instead of slowly." 

"I concur," spoke up Tuvok. "Captain, I have analyzed tactical reports from Gileadean, European, and Khanate military commanders." It had only been a few hours since their return from the surface, but Tuvok was a Vulcan - what more needed to be said? "Are you familiar with the military history of the later Eugenics Wars?" 

Janeway raised an eyebrow, pulled from her inner musings by her friend's question. Resisting the urge to glance at Tom (who obviously _did_ know, and was as eager to give the answer as any excited student), Janeway said slowly, "I have to admit, 20th century military history isn't my area of specialty." 

Tuvok steepled his hands on the table. "In the original history, the Eugenics Wars had largely ended by mid-1996 - the anti-Khanate alliance that would form the New United Nations had already defeated Augment forces in North Africa and East Asia, and all that remained was the final push into northern India. One could walk down the street of a city in North America and not even realize a global war was taking place. Mr. Kim?" 

Harry zoomed out to a map of the globe, a dot in the shadow of the Moon showing Voyager's current location. "This is a political map of Earth as it looked in our 1996 - and here's what we've been able to find out about this Earth." The two maps were strikingly different - not just the warped mass of Gilead and other American successor states in North America, but Asia and Europe... 

"My God," breathed Janeway. She didn't interrupt, though, as Tuvok nodded. 

"In _this_ history, the Khanate and other Augment nations appear to be winning the Eugenics Wars. The current Chinese government estimates that it will fall to Li Kwan's forces within the next five years - and after that, the remaining nations of the world do not have the population or military budget to stop the Augment conquest of the planet." 

"Of course," breathed Tom. "The United States." He smacked his hand on the table. "The United States was key to defeating the Augments in the original timeline. With the US in the middle of a civil war, and most of it run by people who think science is a lie, no wonder this Earth is so helpless." 

"That is...partially true" said Tuvok. "While the lack of American forces has impeded the anti-Augment war effort, Khan's agenda appears to be considerably more popular, even among non-Augments, than it ever was in the original history. Though Gilead has joined the nations of western Europe and east Asia in their wars against the Augments, their political and military disorganization has alienated many potential allies. In this timeline, Khan's forces have expanded into southern and eastern Europe, while other Augment leaders have gained power in northern Europe and southeast Asia. Within a decade, perhaps two, this planet will belong to the Augments." 

"Oh, I don't think Gilead would go so quietly," said Paris quietly. "They control the American nuclear arsenal, remember? If they think they're going to lose, they're going to start World War III sixty years earlier. But why are there so many more Augment followers in this timeline? What's the point of fighting for the sake of becoming a second-class citizen?"

"It makes sense," said Chakotay thoughtfully. The first officer, who had an entirely different part of the briefing to give, had been largely quiet up until now. "This planet has survived famine, plagues, and half the population has a case of chroniton poisoning. The Khanate offers them salvation through science, just as Gilead does it through religion. Like B'Elanna said, people will believe anything as long as it gives them something in return." 

Janeway traced a pattern on the table in front of her for a moment before saying, "Speaking of something to believe in, Mr. Chakotay, I believe it's time for your report." 

Chakotay took a breath, then looked around the table. "I'm no scientist," he said, "but I do know a few tricks with the Starfleet database. I've looked into every time travel technique known to 24th century science and...right now I haven't found anything," he admitted. "If I could get some of your people on it, B'Elanna," she nodded, "and someone from the science division, I might get further, but for now, all the roads are closed." 

"A slingshot effect?" 

"That only works to take us into the past, and then back again," said Chakotay. "We couldn't use it to go forward." 

"What about the - known artifacts that allow for time travel?" Tuvok had the security clearance to know about the Guardian of Forever, but he wasn't going to mention it around a non-Starfleeter like Kes. Or around Paris, for that matter. 

"There are...possibilities, but we'd have to figure out what we could actually do. Even if we got an away team onto Braxton's ship, we don't know enough about his technology to stop his ship from crashing." 

"I think we're leaving something out," said Janeway. "What if we slingshot back to the 1960s, and we find a way to catch Braxton's ship before it impacts Earth. Hell, if we can save him, he might even be able to transport us back to our Earth in the right era." 

"It's going to take a _lot_ of augmentation of the tractor beam to stop a vessel traveling at that high warp," said Torres thoughtfully. "Especially since an antimatter explosion in Earth orbit isn't going to make things any better for human history. Probably several weeks of work, especially since we can't exactly beam down and scavage for supplies." 

"It would probably cause World War III a century early," agreed Paris. 

"...Captain," said Tuvok, "may I raise a question?" He shot a glance at Kes as he spoke, realizing she had the same question he did. 

"Of course," said Janeway, a little surprised that he'd even spoken. 

"Do we have the right to interfere in this timeline's development?" 

"Tuvok, we've _already_ interfered," said Janeway firmly. "These people wouldn't be suffering if not for Braxton's attack on our ship!" 

"Nonethless," said Tuvok, "Braxton did attack us, and did crash his vessel into California twenty-nine years ago." The humans around the table were giving him emotional looks, but that was nothing new. "The planet below has a population of nearly four billion people, many of whom were born after the Braxton event. If we travel back and prevent the disaster, it will be as if their lives never took place." 

"Lives of misery and bondage!" said Janeway, "Either under a religious dictatorship that wants to turn half the population into cattle, or a technocratic nightmare that wants to sterilize anyone of the wrong genetic code! We're not talking about wiping out a whole universe, just changing the history of one planet." 

"...respectfully, Captain, I'm not sure that's true," said Kim, the look he got from his Captain chasing the music out of his head for a few minutes. He pressed a few more buttons, and an image of the local stellar group. "At this time in the original history, Earth was a protectorate of the Vulcan High Command. All I should be seeing on local subspace is Vulcan traffic - but I've been picking up Vulcan, Andorian, even Tellarite signals; all races that shouldn't even be speaking to each other at this point." 

Janeway shifted in her seat. "...that aside, we have to think about our responsibility to the Alpha Quadrant - and the _correct_ history. If we've actually changed our own past rather than simply creating an alternate timeline, we _have_ to try and set things right." 

"Respectfully, Captain, we do not know what we have done," said Tuvok, "The Federation simply does not know enough about time travel. With that in mind, my recommendation is that we once again seek out the subspace signals we detected in North America. Even a fragment of 29th century technology will tell us more than we already know about time travel, and help make sure that whatever decision we make is an informed one."

"Captain," added Kes, "I think...I think we should talk to Rain about this. It's her history, she deserves a say in it, don't you think?" 

Janeway fell silent for a moment, looking around at the faces of her crew, then let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Okay. B'Elanna, you and Tom work on modifying the tractor beam and calculating a slingshot trajectory to take us to 1967." Before anyone could object, she said, "I'm not finished. Kes, you and I will keep working with Rain Robinson. We need to try and understand her before we make any decisions about the fate of this timeline." She considered a moment, then said, "Harry, Ensign Ballard's on duty in the shuttle bay this week - take the Sacajawea out to the edge of the Solar System and see if you can get a better feel for how the events on Earth apparently influenced the local power structure." There was no clear reason why it should have, after all. "And Tuvok? I think it's time for you to go back Under His Eye..."


End file.
